A woman is charged with killing three men whose bodies were found after a fire at a house in Homewood North where long-term boarding rooms were being offered for those in need.

Latoya Lyerly, 42, told detectives during an interview that she started the blaze Wednesday morning on North Lang Avenue, but she gave two different accounts of what happened, according to police.

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Police say Lyerly told them she set the fire because the boarding house was "filled with demons" and people who did drugs and had sex. But police also say she acknowledged threatening to burn it down the night before after she became upset when the owner, Derlyn Vance, 73, told her to turn down her radio.

"If she thought that, then she was the demon that was in there. For real, if that is the case, she was the demon that went into that house," said Robert Turner, who knew both Vance and Lyerly.

In addition to Vance, the medical examiner's office said Calvin Turner, 56, and Gerald Johnson, 68, died from smoke inhalation and burns.

Pittsburgh firefighters received the call around 6:20 a.m. after a smoke alarm at the home next door was set off by the intense blaze.

"It was a hard fight," said Fire Chief Darryl Jones. He said heavy flames were visible when firefighters arrived, and they worked to contain the fire to the house and keep it from spreading to a neighbor's home less than a foot away.

An initial search of the house found two victims on the second floor. Another search uncovered the third victim on the third floor.

"The secondary search -- sometimes the fire causes so much damage that debris and stuff falls down, and it's hard to see. You can't identify a person by their outline or anything. You just see debris," Jones said.

Police said Lyerly was at the scene of the fire when police arrived. According to the criminal complaint, she told police that she lived in the first-floor front bedroom of the home. She was taken to police headquarters to be interviewed.

The complaint says prior to Lyerly's interview, arson and fire investigators informed police the fire appeared to have started in the first-floor front bedroom.

Lyerly told police she was living in the house with other people, including the three victims. The owner, who she referred to as "Dad," also lived there. She said Vance paid her to cook and clean for him.

After telling police about the argument over the radio, Lyerly first claimed that she walked to Shuman Market to buy soda and cigarettes sometime after 6 a.m. and was hanging out on the corner when someone told her about the fire, according to the complaint.

Police said Lyerly eventually changed her story to say she lit a cigarette that caught her bed on fire. She told police she got scared and ran out of the house without alerting the other residents or calling 911, according to the complaint.

According to the complaint, she later said, "The residence she was living at was filled with demons and that everyone inside the residence was involved in drugs and sex."

But Iris King, Vance's neighbor, describes him as a man with a huge heart and concern for people: "He was a kind, generous person who opened his home to people who needed help and shelter."

Turner voiced the same sentiments: "Type of person who would help people out when they're out in the cold, help them get off the streets."

The house suffered heavy damage and will likely be demolished. As news of the devastating fire spread through the community, those who knew the home's purpose were saddened.

"He was helping a lot of homeless people. You know, it's cold out here," said Cohen Dior, who lives in the area.

Dior said he was among those who had been helped by the homeowner.

"When I was having my little problems, he let me come over there a couple times," Dior said.

"Whenever we go into a fire, we are your neighbors. This is our neighborhood. We have firefighters who live here, so we hurt just like the neighborhood hurt," Jones said.

Lyerly provided a third version of the story to another detective, saying the home was filled with demons and that everyone who lived in the residence was involved in drugs and sex. She stated it was a trap house and that she had to fulfill a mission, and kill everyone in the house. On the morning of the fire, she said she began hearing voices telling her to carry out her mission. She said she set a bundle of paper coffee strainers, lit them on fire and then used them to set a chair on fire on the first floor. When it began to accelerate, she grabbed her coat and walked out of the house.

The Allegheny County fire marshal determined the fire was intentionally set based on burn patterns.